Task effect on L2 rhythm production by Cantonese learners of Portuguese

Sun, Yuqi; Zhang, Cong

doi:10.1590/1678-460X202258943

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Articles • DELTA 38 (3) • 2022 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-460X202258943 copy

Task effect on L2 rhythm production by Cantonese learners of Portuguese

O efeito de tarefa na produção do ritmo por estudantes cantonenses de português como L2

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

This study examines L2 Portuguese speech produced by eight native Cantonese speakers from Macao, China. The aims of this study are to investigate (1) whether the speech rhythm in L2 Portuguese is more source-like (more similar to Cantonese) or more target-like (more similar to Portuguese), and (2) whether L2 speech rhythm differs across three different tasks: a reading task, a retelling task, and an interpreting task. Seven rhythm metrics, i.e., %V, ΔC, ΔV, VarcoC, VarcoV, rPVI_C, and nPVI_V, were adopted for comparison and investigation. The results showed that L2 Portuguese rhythm produced by Cantonese speakers differed from L1 Portuguese speakers’ rhythm. R-deletion and vowel epenthesis were the reasons for the variabilities and instabilities of L2 Portuguese production by Cantonese learners, as they affect the duration and the number of vowel intervals and consonantal intervals. Moreover, in Cantonese learners’ L2 Portuguese production, the semi-spontaneous tasks (retelling and interpreting) presented a significant difference from the reading task. The driving force for such a difference was the cognitive load behind the tasks.

Keywords:
L2 rhythm; Portuguese; Cantonese; task effect; cognitive load

	Speakers			Task(s) & Materials	Metrics
	Number & Gender	Age	Language(s)	Task(s) & Materials	Metrics
Frota & Vigário (2001Frota, S., & Vigário, M. (2001). On the correlates of rhythmic distinctions: The European/Brazilian Portuguese case. Probus, 13(2), 247-275. https://doi.org/10.1515/prbs.2001.005. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1515/... )	5 female	20s-30s	L1 Portuguese	reading short sentences	%V, ∆C, ∆V, ∆%C, ∆%V
Mok & Dellwo (2008Mok, P., & Dellwo, V. (2008). Comparing native and non-native speech rhythm using acoustic rhythmic measures: Cantonese, Beijing Mandarin and English. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Speech Prosody, 423-426.)	6 (3 male+3 female)	undergraduate/ postgra-duate students	L1 Cantonese; L2 English	“The North Wind and the Sun”	ΔC, ΔV, %V, VarcoC, VarcoV, rPVI_C, nPVI_V^*
	6 (3 male+3 female)		L1 Cantonese; L2 English	reading and retelling in L1;
	6 (3 male+3 female)		L1 Mandarin; L2 English	reading and retelling in L1;
	6 (3 male+3 female)		L1 Mandarin; L2 English	reading the English version
Mok (2009Mok, P. (2009). On the syllable-timing of Cantonese and Beijing Mandarin. Chinese Journal of Phonetics , 2(May), 148-154.)	6 (3 male+3 female)		L1 Cantonese	“The North Wind and the Sun”
	6 (3 male+3 female)		L1 Mandarin	reading and retelling in L1
Current study	8 (5 female+ 3 male)	24-33	L1 Cantonese; L2 Portuguese	reading “The North Wind and the Sun” (version proposed by the authors);	ΔC, ΔV, %V, VarcoC, VarcoV, rPVI_C, nPVI_V
				retelling the same story;
				sight interpreting news passage

Metrics		Formula & Definition	Source
Interval Measures	%V	$% V = \frac{s u m V}{u t t e r a n c e d u r a n t i o n}$	Ramus et al. (1999Ramus, F., Nespor, M., & Mehler, J. (1999). Correlates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signal. Cognition, 73, 265-292. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(00)00101-3. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/... )
	%V	the proportion of vocalic intervals within the sentence, that is, the sum of vocalic intervals divided by the total duration of the sentence
	ΔV	$Δ V = \sqrt{\frac{1}{n}} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} {(V_{i} - m e a n V)}^{2}$
	ΔV	the standard deviation of total duration of vocalic intervals within each utterance
	ΔC	$Δ C = \sqrt{\frac{1}{n}} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} {(C_{i} - m e a n C)}^{2}$
	ΔC	the standard deviation of total duration of consonantal intervals within each sentence
	VarcoC	$V a r c o C = \frac{Δ C}{m e a n C} \times 100$	Dellwo & Wagner (2003Dellwo, V., & Wagner, P. (2003, August 3-9). Relations between language rhythm and speech rate [Paper presentation]. The 15th International Congress of Phonetics Science (ICPhS), Barcelona, Spain. https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/111779/1/DellwoWagner_2003_ICPhS.pdf. https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/111779... )
		(C is the duration of consonantal intervals)
		the normalized standard deviation of consonantal interval durations divided by the mean consonantal duration, multiplied by 100
	VarcoV	$V a r c o V = \frac{Δ V}{m e a n V} \times 100$
		(V is the duration of consonantal intervals)
		the normalized standard deviation of vocalic interval durations divided by the mean vocalic duration, multiplied by 100
Pairwise Variability Indices	rPVI_C	$r P V I = \frac{(\sum_{k = 1}^{m - 1} \|d_{k} - d_{k + 1}\|)}{(m - 1)}$	Grabe & Low (2002Grabe, E., & Low, E. L. (2002). Durational variability in speech and the rhythm class hypothesis. In C. Gussenhoven, & N. Warner (Eds.), Laboratory Phonology VII Vol. 7 (pp. 515-546). Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197105.2.515. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1515/... )
		(m is the number of intervals in the text; d is the duration of the kth item/interval)
		the mean of the differences between consecutive consonantal intervals, which is not normalized for speech rate
	nPVI_V	$n P V I = 100 \times [\frac{\sum_{k = 1}^{m - 1} \|\frac{\frac{d_{k} - d_{k + 1}}{(d_{k} + d_{k + 1})}}{2}\|}{(m - 1)}]$
		(m is the number of intervals in the text; d is the duration of the kth item/interval)
		mean of the differences between consecutive vowel intervals divided by the sum of the same intervals, then multiplied by 100

	Current study			Frota & Vigário, 2001Frota, S., & Vigário, M. (2001). On the correlates of rhythmic distinctions: The European/Brazilian Portuguese case. Probus, 13(2), 247-275. https://doi.org/10.1515/prbs.2001.005. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1515/...	Mok, 2009Mok, P. (2009). On the syllable-timing of Cantonese and Beijing Mandarin. Chinese Journal of Phonetics , 2(May), 148-154. ; Mok & Dellwo, 2008Mok, P., & Dellwo, V. (2008). Comparing native and non-native speech rhythm using acoustic rhythmic measures: Cantonese, Beijing Mandarin and English. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Speech Prosody, 423-426.
	L2 Portuguese reading	L2 Portuguese retelling	L2 Portuguese interpreting	L1 Portuguese sentence reading	L1 Cantonese reading	L1 Cantonese retelling
Interval measures
ΔC	55.40 (27.2)	55.17 (32.2)	59.88 (34.3)	54.6 (14.55)	41	40
ΔV	89.09 (47.2)	105.4 (65.0)	93.83 (64.1)	40.2 (14.10)	-	-
%V	62.04 (10.6)	66.59 (15.3)	60.73 (16.0)	48.0 (5.04)	55	57
VarcoC	50.91	51.91	52.71	-	48.5	49
VarcoV	51.76	55.42	55.31	-	-	-
Pairwise variability indices
rPVI_C	19.21	30.21	30.61	-	49	45
nPVI_V	9.01	20.60	17.60	-	43	48

word	meaning	IPA	canonical pronunciation in L1
por [um lado]	in one hand	pu[ũˈɫa.du]	Puɾ [ˈũˈɫa.du]
por [exemplo]	for example	puiˈzẽplu	puɾ iˈzẽplu
reproduzir	reproduce	ʀəpruduˈzi	ʀəpruduˈzir
tirar	remove	tiˈra	tiˈrar
reduzir	reduce	ʀəduˈzi	ʀəduˈzir

position	word	meaning	IPA	canonical pronunciation in L1
at the right edge of a word	passar	to pass	pɐˈsarɨ	pɐˈsar
	obrigar	to force	ɔbriˈɡarɨ	ɔbriˈɡar
	reconhecer	recognize	ʀəkuɲəˈserɨ	ʀəkuɲəˈser
	matar	to kill	mɐˈtarɨ	mɐˈtar
	transmitir	transmitting	tr ɐ̃ʒmiˈtirɨ	tr ɐ̃ʒmiˈtir
in consonant clusters	reproduzir	reproduce	ʀəpɨruduˈziɾ	ʀəpruduˈziɾ
	proteína	protein	pɨrɔtɐˈinɐ	prɔtɐˈinɐ
	primeiramente	firstly	pɨrimɐjrɐˈmẽtɨ	primɐjrɐˈmẽtɨ
	encontrar	to meet	ẽkõtɨˈraɾ	ẽkõˈtraɾ
	Brasil	Brazil	bɨrɐˈziɫ	brɐˈziɫ

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E-mail: delta@pucsp.br

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[1] Conflict of interests

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.